tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post3250993553336423984..comments2017-10-16T17:52:31.911-05:00Comments on Althouse: Victoria Toensing thinks Patrick Fitzgerald should can the emotional theatrics.Ann Althousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01630636239933008807noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-70753912492309668282008-12-13T15:59:00.000-06:002008-12-13T15:59:00.000-06:00So we're supposed to listen to anything Toesning h...So we're supposed to listen to anything Toesning has to say about Fitzgerald? This is the same Toesing who lied so appallingly under oath in her congressional testimony on the Plame affair that Waxman gave her an opportunity to amend her testimony. She hates Fitzgerald with a passion.Freder Fredersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01498410102809290399noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-21432190559805448052008-12-13T15:28:00.000-06:002008-12-13T15:28:00.000-06:00Fitz is undertaking an employment negotiation here...Fitz is undertaking an employment negotiation here. Obama will be loath to fire him because then it makes Obama look like he's got something to hide. Fitz keeps the scope of the investigation focused on Blago. And, wink wink, finds no trail to Obama's crew. Now Blago plays the dunce (and what an act it is) who takes the fall. And then after the trial everyone takes a bow and says the how the corruption has been cleaned. The press will be able to point at those "probing questions" asked of Obama. Its just the American version of the Roman Senate less the swordplay and coliseum.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11415427249898754955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-14380093601115867622008-12-13T13:33:00.000-06:002008-12-13T13:33:00.000-06:00They predicted Patrick Fitzgerald was going to fro...They predicted Patrick Fitzgerald was going to frog-march a high-ranking presidental advisor out of the White House, and they might yet be right!Der Hahnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05967487071137862252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-47303981131905613722008-12-13T13:14:00.000-06:002008-12-13T13:14:00.000-06:00He's just adding verbal emphasis - he's telling li...He's just adding verbal emphasis - he's telling listeners why they should sit up and pay attention to a story about yet more corruption in Illinois. <I>Yeah - you think you've heard it all, but this one is messed up even by this place's standards!</I>, he was saying.Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10065798213115341398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-2719054432545718462008-12-13T11:17:00.000-06:002008-12-13T11:17:00.000-06:00Fitzgerald should know that fame as a prosecutor i...Fitzgerald should know that fame as a prosecutor is especially fleeting. The prototype for the crusading DA was of course Thomas Dewey who parlayed his crime busting into a governorship and the Republican nomination for President. Something that elude even such a famous prosecutor as Rudy Giuliani. He was famous as an incorruptible foe of organized crime.<BR/><BR/>In 1991 Hollywood produced a cheesy movie called Mobster starring Christian Slater, Costas Mandylor, and the immortal Richard Grieco. One of the main plot devices was that these mobsters were paying a bride to Thomas Dewey. From crusading prosecutor and Presidential candidate to bride taking corrupt bagman in less than forty years.<BR/><BR/>Fame is fleeting. Happy Fitz mass.Trooper Yorkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978703998566102194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-39347403471003552692008-12-13T11:14:00.000-06:002008-12-13T11:14:00.000-06:00Most Independent Prosecutors are drama queens. Wal...Most Independent Prosecutors are drama queens. Walsh in Iran Contra was the worst. A sanctimonious, pompous ass who dragged his investigation our for 6 years without finding much of anything.rcoceanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17102201338319611538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-47268425285088409752008-12-13T11:01:00.000-06:002008-12-13T11:01:00.000-06:00Some people really learn to love that old media sp...Some people really learn to love that old media spotlight, don't they? As others in this thread have pointed out, it's afflicted folks like Spitzer (and I'd include Ken Starr in that list, my Republicanism notwithstanding).<BR/><BR/>Bottom line: if a city whose political establishment includes Richard Daley the son and included Dan Rostenkowski, Richard Daley the father, John Stroger, and ward heelers too numerous to name is going to make Lincoln "roll over in his grave" then the great man's skeleton has been spinning at near light speed for a nearly a century.Big Mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15831645119853118904noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-3135709309532439562008-12-13T10:47:00.000-06:002008-12-13T10:47:00.000-06:00I agree. He is all into the drama at those press ...I agree. He is all into the drama at those press conferences.<BR/><BR/>Just the facts please.Titusisveryrelaxedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09092751195412072957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-65375265246709488082008-12-13T10:18:00.000-06:002008-12-13T10:18:00.000-06:00Another 'victim' of arrogance and 'power corrupts....Another 'victim' of arrogance and 'power corrupts.' <BR/>Reason enough that government power positions should have reasonable term limitations, preferably self-imposed, otherwise statutory.bearbeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04770545814913465196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-6676068272737083022008-12-13T09:59:00.000-06:002008-12-13T09:59:00.000-06:00Cynics who see corruption as pervasive in politics...<A HREF="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-12-12/in-defense-of-chicago-politics/1/" REL="nofollow">Cynics who see corruption as pervasive in politics are wrong.</A><BR/><BR/>LMAO at that weirdly humorous and insipid piece by Dan Rostenkowski.<BR/><BR/>/not-entirely OT (depending on how one looks at it)reader_iamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17352836883752091339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-92078006173003630912008-12-13T09:52:00.000-06:002008-12-13T09:52:00.000-06:00Just call an infield fly and avoid the ungentleman...Just call an infield fly and avoid the ungentlemanly theatricsSteveRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12864387606863466980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-83394667953904514782008-12-13T09:49:00.000-06:002008-12-13T09:49:00.000-06:00Toensing, who seems to think Fitzgerald was embold...<I>Toensing, who seems to think Fitzgerald was emboldened by the adulation he received in the media over the way he treated Scooter Libby</I><BR/><BR/>I agree. At first I thought the guy was more like New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.<BR/><BR/>Then he turned into a moralizing drama queen ala Spitzer.jdeeripperhttp://openid.aol.com/jdeerippernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-53664082063134918802008-12-13T09:46:00.000-06:002008-12-13T09:46:00.000-06:00Toensing has a point, although a high profile poli...Toensing has a point, although a high profile political case may not be the best place to make it. Politicos usually have the ability to respond, even where judicial gag orders or court rules would prevent an ordinary defendant from doing so. For example, Libby's defenders answered Fitzpatrick tit for tat, and got Libby's narrative about the 'non-investigation that created the crime if there was one' wide public exposure before the jury was impanelled. If Blago has a narrative -- and he will, particularly about the "selling of the Senate seat" stuff, since a lot of the criminal complaint describes only a vulgar effort to get political advantage from a political appointment -- it too will get wide exposure. It's already started. In part all of that is just a reflection of the power of high office and the cronyism that goes with it, and in part the fact that political cases often take on a partisan spin where the Ds and Rs feel a need to demonstrate team loyalty. The defendant has a built-in cheering section.<BR/><BR/>The most powerful demonstration of the politico's power to fight in the PR ring against a prosecutor came when Clinton just eviscerated Ken Starr during the investigatory phase of that case, to the point where the perjurer and serial philanderer became the hero/victim of the whole thing. <BR/><BR/>It's the ordinary albeit heinous criminal cases generating lots of local interest and publicity where prosecutorial preening for the cameras can sometimes impact on a defendant's ability to get a fair trial. Cops and local DAs know how to get publicity, from the initial perp walk for the cameras, to the press conference announcing the arrest or charges, to the leaks from an unnamed source with access to grand jury testimony, etc., and they use it routinely. Defendants in those cases don't often have willing or able surrogates who can get their side of the story out, and defense lawyers can be hampered from doing so by court rules, gag orders or merely a disinterested press from doing so. <BR/><BR/>In all events, it's doubtful that any of this actually impacts on a defendant's right to a fair trial -- after all, that's the concern motivating the ethical rules -- except in the most unusual circumstances. Courts are skeptical of pre-trial publicity claims. And in Blago's case, the transcripts were so sensational that nothing Fitzpatrick added really made much difference. All in all, it's hard to get too excited about Fitz's misstep, assuming there was one.Richard Dolanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12735773524374061429noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-31191339576427932922008-12-13T09:40:00.000-06:002008-12-13T09:40:00.000-06:00This guy is an out of control publicity hound comb...This guy is an out of control publicity hound combining the worst features of Rudy Giuliani and Eliot Spitzer. Obama is crazy if he doesn't fire all the US Attorney's and replace them as every President does when he comes into office. He must know it would only be a problem if he were a Republican. As a Democrat he can do what he wants and not sweat it at all.Trooper Yorkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978703998566102194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-32127192092802668972008-12-13T09:36:00.000-06:002008-12-13T09:36:00.000-06:00Victoria is right (adore her and her husband, btw)...Victoria is right (adore her and her husband, btw). I do admire Fitzgerald, but these theatrics I can do without. Reminds me a little bit of that Duke rape hoax prosecutor. I have thankfully forgotten his name for the moment.Darcyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05642443487136176511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-50045415259121378262008-12-13T09:11:00.000-06:002008-12-13T09:11:00.000-06:00Maybe those baseball analogies aren't so great aft...Maybe those baseball analogies aren't so great after all.Magurohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10174899673368042634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-45486262702624922452008-12-13T08:57:00.000-06:002008-12-13T08:57:00.000-06:00He doesn't understand- the media only celebrates u...He doesn't understand- the media only celebrates unprofessional, self-aggrandizing behavior when it's directed against Republicans! ...or laws that the left dislike and blame on the right, even if the Democratic Party was in control when they were passed (cough, Don't Ask Don't Tell, cough).Jeff with one 'f'https://www.blogger.com/profile/05744612696537883583noreply@blogger.com